The Help

Decent exposure of the US apartheid from the stories of the women at the heart of it – 4/5

An upcoming white writer from Jackson, Mississippi in the heartland of the middle class deep south challenges the boundaries of 1960’s America. She strikes up an unlikely – and unlawful – friendship with the black maids of her friends and neighbours to collate a series of anonymous stories which she has published in a dramatic book. The stories are both poignant and humerous highlighting everything from being the sole mother figures to generations of white children to being forced to use separate toilets from their white “bosses”.

This is a good film and The Academy will no doubt reward its acting performances with a number of nominations but I feel the film was a bit too sentimental at times with the lines overly cheesy and corny throughout. The two maids collaborating their stories expertly aide this adaptation of Kathryn Stockett’s novel however the story lacks something at the end as I really was expecting more and thought the storyline was leading towards something more dramatic. A good film highlighting a slice of mid-twentieth century history but sadly somewhat underwhelming.